Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that he considered the Punjab educational programme as a model and referred to this fact wherever he went, and apart from formal education, Punjab government was also paying due attention to vocational training of the youth. He expressed these views while presiding over the meeting of the Punjab cabinet here on Thursday, disclosed an official.
Appreciating the developmental projects being undertaken in the province, Shaukat especially lauded Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme and added that no society could progress in any sector without promotion of education.
Addressing the meeting, Punjab Chief Minister, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that leaders of all trade associations of the province have assured him that they would not participate in any strike. He said that there was a complete freedom of political activities in Punjab but strikes have nothing to do with politics and the elements, which resort to such tactics, were in fact trying to promote instability and anarchy in the society. The traders' community would not play in the hands of such elements.
He also apprised the Prime Minister about the details of ongoing developmental projects in the province. He informed the PM that the ratio of utilisation of funds of annual development programme (ADP) was more than 80 percent last year, which was expected to reach between 90 percent to 93 percent this year and would be the highest in the history of the country.
According to him, as a result of economic policies formulated by the federal government, additional resources have become available to the provinces and they were now in a better position to give a practical shape to the public-welfare programmes.